MAN, to man the works, is to post the soldiers on the lines so as to be ready for their defence, &c. In the plural number it means soldiers, as an army consisting of 12,000 men.
Flank-front-rank-Man. Each soldier upon the right and left extremity of the first line or rank of any given body of troops is so called.
Flank-rear-rank-Man. Each soldier upon the right and left extremity of the last line or rank of any given body of troops.
When a company or battalion is drawn up three deep, the two men who stand at the extremities of the centre line may be called flank-centre-rank-men.
MANCELLE, Fr. a small chain which is fixed to the collars of carriage or dray horses, and which terminates in a large iron ring, that is attached to the shaft. It likewise means the ring itself.
MANCHE d’un Bataillon, Fr. literally means the sleeve of a battalion.—This word originally signified any small body consisting of 40 or 60 men, which were drawn out of the main-body of a battalion, and were posted by files upon the corners or angles of the same battalion.
At present the word manches means the wings of a battalion, the centre of which was composed of pikemen, whilst pikes were in use. Thus there were right and left wings, which were again divided into half-wings, quarter-wings, and half-quarter-wings.
Any battalion may defile or break off by wings, half-wings, or by the other proportions.
The term manche, or wing, was undoubtedly adopted for the express purpose of distinguishing several small corps, which, though at times connected and standing together, could suddenly detach themselves, and act against the enemy without occasioning the most trifling fluctuation or movement in the main body. The Greeks and Romans must have had a term synonimous to manche, in order to shew the several little portions into which the phalanx of the former, and the legion of the latter, were at times divided, when there was occasion for either to manœuvre upon the same principles that we do by wings.
Gardes de la Manche, Fr. Men belonging to the old French body guards, who on particular occasions, as at the Royal Chapel, &c. stood on each side of the king, dressed in hoquetons, and armed with pertuisanes or lances.